(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing electrode assemblies for batteries and an apparatus for manufacturing wound electrodes, and in particular to a method for manufacturing wound electrode assemblies by cutting and winding pieces of an electrode plate pulled out from an electrode plate roll.
(2) Description of the Related Art
As a method for manufacturing wound electrode assemblies for batteries, it is common to pull out an electrode plate bit by bit from an electrode plate roll, cut off one-cell-long pieces from the electrode plate with a cutter, and wind the electrode plate pieces.
Here, degradation of the cutter increases the occurrence of burrs at the cut edges, and increases burrs in size as well. Such burrs can be a cause of short circuit in a wound electrode assembly (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-241737).
In view of this, a conventional method to control burrs is required to beforehand determine an acceptable level of burrs, regularly check the burrs by sampling, and change the cutter with a new one when the acceptable level is reached.
Also, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-85066, there is a well-known technique to prevent short circuit in an electrode assembly even if burrs occur at the cut edge. According to this method, protective tapes are bonded to the cut edges so as to sandwich them and cover the both sides of the electrode plate pieces.